General knowledge · 12 questions

Classic British sitcoms and drama

Twelve questions on classic british sitcoms and drama. Look closely: the most familiar answer is not always the right one.

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What is the name of the prison in the original Porridge?

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1. What is the name of the prison in the original Porridge?
- A. HMP Wetherby
- B. HMP Larkhall
- C. HMP Slade (answer)
- D. HMP Wentworth
Norman Stanley Fletcher serves his sentence at the fictional HMP Slade.
2. Who co-wrote Fawlty Towers with John Cleese and played Polly?
- A. Carol Cleveland
- B. Caroline Andrew
- C. Connie Booth (answer)
- D. Prunella Scales
Connie Booth co-created and co-wrote the series while playing the resourceful Polly.
3. In The Good Life, what are the first names of the couple pursuing self-sufficiency?
- A. Jerry and Margo
- B. Tom and Barbara (answer)
- C. George and Mildred
- D. Terry and June
Tom and Barbara Good convert their suburban home into a self-sufficient smallholding.
4. Keeping Up Appearances centres on Hyacinth, who insists her surname Bucket should be pronounced how?
- A. Buchanan
- B. Bouquet (answer)
- C. Beauchamp
- D. Buckley
Hyacinth's preferred pronunciation is 'Bouquet', reflecting her relentless social aspirations.
5. In Yes Minister, which senior civil servant is played by Nigel Hawthorne?
- A. Bernard Woolley
- B. Arnold Robinson
- C. Frank Weisel
- D. Humphrey Appleby (answer)
Hawthorne plays Sir Humphrey Appleby, the master of elegant bureaucratic obstruction.
6. Blackadder Goes Forth is chiefly set during which conflict?
- A. The Boer War
- B. The Crimean War
- C. The First World War (answer)
- D. The Second World War
The fourth series follows Captain Blackadder and his companions on the Western Front in 1917.
7. Who plays the title character in the BBC drama I, Claudius?
- A. Derek Jacobi (answer)
- B. John Hurt
- C. Patrick Stewart
- D. Brian Blessed
Derek Jacobi plays Claudius; the other actors also appear in the drama in different roles.
8. The 1981 television serial Brideshead Revisited adapts a novel by whom?
- A. Graham Greene
- B. E. M. Forster
- C. Evelyn Waugh (answer)
- D. Aldous Huxley
The serial adapts Evelyn Waugh's novel about Charles Ryder and the aristocratic Flyte family.
9. Who plays George Smiley in the BBC's 1979 Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy?
- A. Michael Hordern
- B. Michael Gough
- C. Alec Guinness (answer)
- D. Ian Richardson
Alec Guinness plays Smiley in the television adaptation, decades before Gary Oldman's film portrayal.
10. Which actor plays Francis Urquhart in the original British House of Cards?
- A. Nigel Hawthorne
- B. Richard Briers
- C. Ian Holm
- D. Ian Richardson (answer)
Ian Richardson portrays the calculating Conservative politician Francis Urquhart.
11. What is the surname of the family employing servants in the original Upstairs, Downstairs?
- A. Ramsay
- B. Poldark
- C. Bellamy (answer)
- D. Forsyte
The series follows the Bellamy household and its servants at 165 Eaton Place.
12. In the BBC's 1995 Pride and Prejudice, who plays Elizabeth Bennet opposite Colin Firth?
- A. Anna Chancellor
- B. Susannah Harker
- C. Jennifer Ehle (answer)
- D. Julia Sawalha
Jennifer Ehle plays Elizabeth; Harker, Sawalha and Chancellor play Jane, Lydia and Caroline Bingley respectively.

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